narrated by aurelia malvar, a tagalog from santo tomas, batangas. her father told her the story.

many, many years ago, when people were innocent, as soon as they died, their souls went directly to heaven. in a short time heaven was crowded with souls, because nearly every one went there. one day, while god was sitting on his throne, he felt it moved by some one. on looking up, he saw that the souls were pushing towards him, because the sky was about to fall. at once he summoned five angels, and said to them, “go at once to the earth, and hold up the sky with your heads until i can have it repaired.” then god called together all his carpenters, and said to them, “repair the heavens as soon as possible.”

the work was done; but it happened that the tallest angel was standing in the centre of the group; and so, ever since, the sky has been curved.